Category Archives: Museums and Art Galleries of London

Christopher Nolan’s hotly-anticipated feature film Dunkirk, is to screen in IMAX 70mm 2D film at the Science Museum on its worldwide opening weekend.

The Science Museum, one of only three venues in the UK showing Nolan’s epic cinematic event in the largest commercial film format, will screen the film in IMAX 70mm 2D film. IMAX 70mm film projection combines the brightest, clearest images at almost 10 times the resolution of standard 35mm film projection with specially created sound for a high-quality viewing experience.

Nolan has often used IMAX film and for Dunkirk, more footage was shot on IMAX film than in any other Nolan film, with extensive use of IMAX cameras in an innovative hand-held capacity.

The film is relates the events in the Second World War when hundreds of thousands of British and Allied troops are surrounded by enemy forces in Dunkirk.

The creative team on Dunkirk included director of photography Hoyte van Hoytema, production designer Nathan Crowley, editor Lee Smith, costume designer Jeffrey Kurland and visual effects supervisor Andrew Jackson. The music was composed by Hans Zimmer.

Dunkirk screens at the Science Museum from 21 July 2017.

For more information and book tickets , visit the Science Museum website here

London Visitors is the official blog for the Visiting London Guide .com website. The website was developed to bring practical advice and latest up to date news and reviews of events in London.
Since our launch in January 2014, we have attracted thousands of readers each month, the site is constantly updated.
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The Royal Academy presents Second Nature: The Art of Charles Tunnicliffe RA in the Academy’s Tennant Gallery from the 11th July 2017. Tunnicliffe is one of the best-known wildlife artists of the 20th century and an accomplished print-maker, Tunnicliffe won acclaim for his naturalistic depictions of birds and other wildlife. His subjects were meticulously observed but always depicted as a living part of the natural world, never as specimens.

The display will feature a selection of Tunnicliffe’s distinctive etchings and wood-engravings, some of which he presented to the RA following his election as a Royal Academician in 1954, as well as a set of watercolours that he exhibited at the RA Summer Exhibitions. Tunnicliffe was in great demand as a book illustrator, producing artwork for Ladybird books, Faber and Faber and other popular publishers. There will be a selection of Tunnicliffe’s book illustrations including the 1932 first illustrated edition of Henry Williamson’s Tarka the Otter and What to Look For Ladybird series, as well as examples of his high quality commercial designs such as Brooke Bond tea cards. The Royal Academy’s display is timed to coincide with the publication of a comprehensive new catalogue raisonné of Tunnicliffe’s prints, written by print historians Professor Robert Meyrick and Dr Harry Heuser.

Second Nature: The Art of Charles Tunnicliffe RA will have a dedicated area for families where they can read Ladybird Books and take part in a number of activities. The Royal Academy will also hold a programme of events for families, including storytelling and a family studio where children will be able to draw from real life animals as part of Open House London.

For more information or to book tickets, visit the Royal Academy website here

London Visitors is the official blog for the Visiting London Guide .com website. The website was developed to bring practical advice and latest up to date news and reviews of events in London.
Since our launch in January 2014, we have attracted thousands of readers each month, the site is constantly updated.
We have sections on Museums and Art Galleries, Transport, Food and Drink, Places to Stay, Security, Music, Sport, Books and many more.
There are also hundreds of links to interesting articles on our blog.
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This summer Tate Modern will present Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, a landmark exhibition exploring how these issues played out among and beyond African American artists from 1963 to 1983. At a time when race and identity became major issues in music, sport and literature, brought to public attention by iconic figures like Aretha Franklin, Muhammad Ali and Toni Morrison, ‘Black Art’ was being defined and debated across the country in vibrant paintings, photographs, prints and sculptures. Featuring more than 150 works by over 60 artists, many on display in the UK for the first time, Soul of a Nation will be a timely opportunity to see how American cultural identity was re-shaped at a time of social unrest and political struggle.

The show begins in 1963 with the formation of the Spiral Group, a New York–based collective. They questioned how Black artists should relate to American society, with key figures like Romare Bearden and Norman Lewis responding to current events in their photomontages and abstract paintings. Artists also considered the locations and audiences for their art – from local murals to nationally circulated posters and newspapers – with many turning away from seeking mainstream gallery approval to show artwork in their own communities through Black-owned galleries and artist-curated shows.

The exhibition will use archive photographs and documentary material to illustrate the mural movement, including the ‘Wall of Respect’ in Chicago and the ‘Smokehouse’ wall paintings in Harlem. The way artists engaged with street activism will be explored through posters and newspapers, such as the work of the Black Panther Party’s Culture Minister Emory Douglas, who declared “The ghetto itself is the gallery”.

The call for Black Power initiated powerful and inspiring images of political leaders such as Malcolm X and Angela Davis and even works of radical abstraction invoking Martin Luther King’s legacy.

Soul of a Nation will showcase this debate between figuration and abstraction, from Faith Ringgold’s American People Series #20: Die 1967 and Wadsworth Jarrell’s Black Prince 1971 to Frank Bowling’s Texas Louise 1971 and Sam Gilliam’s April 4 1969. A highlight will be Homage to Malcolm 1970 by Jack Whitten, who was awarded the National Medal of Arts by Barack Obama in 2015, which will be going on public display for the very first time.

Away from New York artists across the Unites States engaged in the Black Art debate. In Chicago in the late 1960s, Jeff Donaldson, Wadsworth Jarrell, Jae Jarrell, Barbara Jones-Hogu, Nelson Stevens and Gerald Williams, formed AfriCobra (the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists), the only group to devise a manifesto for Black Art during this period.

Further themes investigated in the exhibition include the emergence of Black Feminism through the work of Betye Saar and Kay Brown, showing how the period marked a revolutionary moment of visibility for Black women, and debates over the possibility of a Black aesthetic in photography featuring work by Roy DeCarava.

For more information or to book tickets, visit the Tate Modern website here

London Visitors is the official blog for the Visiting London Guide .com website. The website was developed to bring practical advice and latest up to date news and reviews of events in London.
Since our launch in 2014, we have attracted thousands of readers each month, the site is constantly updated.
We have sections on Museums and Art Galleries, Transport, Food and Drink, Places to Stay, Security, Music, Sport, Books and many more.
There are also hundreds of links to interesting articles on our blog.
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Bowman Sculpture celebrates Auguste Rodin’s contribution to the history of art with The Birth of Modern Sculpture, an exhibition of over thirty works including a rare lifetime cast of the artist’s famed Eternal Spring (conceived in 1884) as well as a selection of his most renowned pieces such as The Thinker, The Kiss, Balzac and Man with a Broken Nose. The exhibition will also include original copies of letters written by Rodin and a number of drawings unseen in public.

Coinciding with the centenary of the death of Rodin (b. 1840 – d. 1917), The Birth of Modern Sculpture aims to underline Rodin’s enduring sculptural legacy with significant works ranging from the early years to his late abstracted figures.

Amongst Rodin’s earlier work, visitors will be able to see Maquette for The Burghers of Calais, which the sculptor first conceived in 1884 as the inspiration for his emblematic monument. Created as a homage to the brave citizens of Calais who sacrificed themselves to the invading English forces during the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453), this rare model (cast in 1975) offers us a fascinating insight into the artist’s early concept for this commemorative public sculpture.

Among the extremely rare works on show is Rodin’s Fugit Amor, originally conceived in marble in 1887, and later cast in bronze for the Musée Rodin by the Alexis Rudier foundry in 1944. First realised as part of The Gates of Hell and inspired by the story of Paolo and Francesca from Dante’s Inferno, the two figures known as Fugit Amor can be seen twice on the right hand door. Another example of a notable work on display is The Abduction of Hippodamie (c1871), an early work part modelled by Rodin under the mentorship of Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (1824–1887). Depicting a centaur carrying a young woman, The Abduction of Hippodamie is a remarkable example of two sculptors collaborating with surprising effect.

The Birth of Modern Sculpture will also showcase three works from the later part of Rodin’s career such as his Mouvement de danse figures. The artist’s late dance figures have enjoyed a marked revival in interest, particularly in the UK, and the exhibition at Bowman Sculpture will be an opportunity to see a number of rarely-seen bronzes. Works such as Pas de Deux – Mouvement de Danse Type G, conceived in 1911, showing dancers with exaggerated poses is an excellent example of Rodin’s later move towards abstraction.

The Birth of Modern Sculpture will be staged in September at 1 Canada Square in London’s Canary Wharf, offering visitors another unique opportunity to see these beautiful works.

Bowman Sculpture is based at 6 Duke Street, St James’s, London, and is one of the foremost gallery’s in the world for sculpture by Auguste Rodin.

If you would like further information , visit the Bowman Sculpture website here

London Visitors is the official blog for the Visiting London Guide .com website. The website was developed to bring practical advice and the latest up to date news and reviews of events in London.
Since our launch in 2014, we have attracted thousands of readers each month, the site is constantly updated.
We have sections on Museums and Art Galleries, Transport, Food and Drink, Places to Stay, Security, Music, Sport, Books and many more.
There are also hundreds of links to interesting articles on our blog.
To find out more visit the website here

The National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies (NADFAS), a 90,000 member-strong arts education charity founded nearly fifty years ago, has changed its name to The Arts Society.

The Arts Society will build on the strength of the current organisation which has a network of 400 volunteer-driven local societies and contributes to around 500 separate projects each year, donates around £200,000 annually to arts initiatives and contributes around £3M worth of volunteer work to the heritage sector.

The Arts Society works to promote and advance arts education and works to preserve our artistic heritage. It supports the arts, locally, nationally and globally by organising regular events, including study days, cultural visits, tours and lectures.

The Society often supports artists and students in the arts to undertake specialist skills, provides volunteers in museums, churches, historic houses and galleries to help to keep them running.

Each year, the Society works with the Royal Society of British Artists to give talented young artists the chance to be displayed in the RBA Annual Exhibition in London’s Mall

Volunteers contribute to the preservation of collections, deepening the understanding of the nation’s treasures through lengthy digitisation work, photography, archiving and cataloguing.

In Birmingham, the Society has created arts and history trails between diverse places of worship, helping to bring communities together and to spread appreciation of the similarities and differences between religions in local areas.

London Visitors is the official blog for the Visiting London Guide .com website. The website was developed to bring practical advice and the latest up to date news and reviews of events in London.
Since our launch in 2014, we have attracted thousands of readers each month, the site is constantly updated.
We have sections on Museums and Art Galleries, Transport, Food and Drink, Places to Stay, Security, Music, Sport, Books and many more.
There are also hundreds of links to interesting articles on our blog.
To find out more visit the website here

Although the new Tate Modern does not open to the public until the 17th June, members of the press were given a sneak preview of what is considered the most important new cultural building to open in Britain since the British Library. The new Switch House building has been designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron, who also designed the original conversion of the Bankside Power Station in 2000.

The Switch House increases the size of Tate Modern by 60% and provides a series of new spaces to visitors including the subterranean concrete Tanks which will offer the first permanent museum spaces dedicated to live art and a stunning panoramic public viewing terrace on Level 10 which offers wonderful views of London. With the Switch Room on one side and the Boiler House on the other side, the cavernous Turbine Hall now becomes the central space of the Tate Modern.

Since Tate Modern first opened in 2000, it has become one of the most visited art galleries in the world and the opening of the Switch Room and rehanging of the Boiler House consolidates the organisations commitment to a more diverse programme. The free collection displays feature 800 works by over 300 artists from over 50 countries from Chile to India, Russia and Sudan to Thailand. Seventy-five percent of the art on show has been acquired since Tate Modern first opened and half of the solo displays are dedicated to women artists.

The large galleries of the new Switch House concentrates on art from the 1960s to the present day with active sculptures and live performances in the Tanks area. Level 2 explores Object and Architecture with work from Ricardo Basbaum, Joan Jonas and Lewis Balz. Level 3 tries to understand the relationship between the artist and real life with work from Anna Lupas, Helio Oiticica and Rebecca Horn.

Level 4 looks at contemporary city life and dedicates a room to Louise Bourgeois which features one of her trademark spiders. Tate Exchange, an ‘open experiment’ occupies the entire fifth floor of the new Switch House building. Over 50 organisations will participate in Tate Modern’s programme, running events and projects on site and using art as a way of addressing wider issues in the world around us.

The opening of the New Tate Modern will be celebrated by free live performances, new commissions and a host of other special events. Three weeks of live art will animate the displays, this free programme will include Tania Bruguera’s police on horseback to Tino Sehgal’s gallery attendants bursting into song. The Tanks will host new live performance commissions running every day from 17 June to 3 July 2016.

The new Tate Modern will stay open until 22:00 each evening this weekend for a series of special events including a specially commissioned choral work by artist Peter Liversidge, performed at 17:00 on Saturday 18 June by over 500 singers from community choirs across London. Free screenings of film and video works from Tate’s collection will be held throughout each day in the newly refurbished Starr Cinema, while special events for young people and families will take place across the weekend.

In many ways the new Switch Room creates a more balanced Tate Modern with galleries both side of the wonderful Turbine Hall that now features a Tree exhibit from Ai Weiwei. The bridges between the two parts of the galleries offer exciting new perspectives of the Turbine Hall and makes travelling between the two parts of the building easier.

The design of the Switch Room with exposed raw concrete pays tribute to the power station’s industrial past, however the sweeping curving staircases and geometric shapes of the building are a work of art in their own right.

The magnificent panoramic views from the public viewing terrace on Level 10 are likely to be very popular with the many visitors who visit Tate Modern and the new parts of the building will allow considerable scope to push back the boundaries of what you can provide in a modern gallery and consolidate Tate Modern’s reputation as one of the world’s great centres of contemporary art.

Visiting London Guide Rating – Highly Recommended

For more information or to book tickets, visit the Tate Modern website here

London Visitors is the official blog for the Visiting London Guide .com website. The website was developed to bring practical advice and latest up to date news and reviews of events in London.
Since our launch in 2014, we have attracted thousands of readers each month, the site is constantly updated.
We have sections on Museums and Art Galleries, Transport, Food and Drink, Places to Stay, Security, Music, Sport, Books and many more.
There are also hundreds of links to interesting articles on our blog.
To find out more visit the website here

Two very contrasting London museums have been shortlisted as finalists competing for the Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year 2016.

Being selected as a Museum of the Year 2016 finalist caps a remarkable year for Bethlem Museum of the Mind, The Bethlem Gallery and Museum of the Mind opened in February 2015 with the aim of celebrating the lives and achievements of those living with mental ill-health. The pioneering gallery and museum is located at the world’s oldest psychiatric hospital, Bethlem Royal Hospital at Beckenham in south London.

Themed gallery spaces explore the reasons why people arrive at Bethlem, aiming to inspire discussion, debate and reflection on mental health issues which are as relevant today as they were in the past. The Museum houses significant art and historical artefacts, as well as works by current artists and hospital service users.

Among the highlights of the collections are paintings and drawings by Richard Dadd, William Kurelek, Louis Wain and Jonathan Martin, each of whom was a former Bethlem or Maudsley Hospital patient; and the oldest objects in the collection, the world-renowned and imposing statues, ‘Raving and Melancholy Madness’ by Caius Gabriel Cibber, (c.1676) – which originally stood above the gates of the 17th century ‘Bedlam’ at Moorfields – now rest either side of the art deco staircase inside the Museum entrance.

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London is one of the world’s leading museums of art and design. In 2015, nearly 3.9 million visitors attended V&A sites, 14.5 million visitors online and 90,000 V&A Members, the highest in the Museum’s 164-year history. Major gallery restoration projects has transformed seven prominent galleries and redisplayed and reinterpreted the world-renowned collection of 17th and 18th century art and design.

2015 also heralded one of their most popular exhibition programmes. ‘Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty’ became the V&A’s best-selling exhibition, attracting a record-breaking 493,043 visitors from 87 countries. The ‘India Festival’ of exhibitions, activities and events engaged visitors in the rich and varied culture of South Asia. Their headline exhibition ‘The Fabric of India’ was the most wide-ranging exhibition of South Asian textiles ever displayed.

The shortlist of five museums are (in alphabetical order):

Arnolfini, Bristol, South West

Bethlem Museum of the Mind, Beckenham, London

Jupiter Artland, West Lothian

Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), London

York Art Gallery, Yorkshire

The Art Fund awards the Museum of the Year prize annually to one outstanding museum, which, in the opinion of the judges, has shown exceptional imagination, innovation and achievement. The prize of £100,000 is given at an awards dinner, before an invited audience of the UK’s museum and cultural leaders, which this year will take place at the Natural History Museum in London on Wednesday 6 July 2016.

London Visitors is the official blog for the Visiting London Guide .com website. The website was developed to bring practical advice and latest up to date news and reviews of events in London.
Since our launch in January 2014, we have attracted thousands of readers each month, the site is constantly updated.
We have sections on Museums and Art Galleries, Transport, Food and Drink, Places to Stay, Security, Music, Sport, Books and many more.
There are also hundreds of links to interesting articles on our blog.
To find out more visit the website here